Oh hey there, did you miss me?? I loved taking a break for the holidays, it was great to get a little chance to recharge, but now I'm back and ready for more!
Our long Christmas break was amazing but super busy!! The week before Christmas we snuck in lots of time with Jeff's dad's family. His dad throws a Christmas party the Thursday before Christmas every year, and this year their little baby girl Isabella was the party princess. She is getting so big and so cute!! We also drove up to Northwestern for a basketball game where a family friend is one of the coaches. I'm not a huge sports person but am obviously all in for the snacks. Our tickets included access to the club level that had a big dessert bar, so you had better believe I was all over that!! I also ended up meeting a ton of Chicago sports people, but sadly not Pat Tomasulo ;)
My brother and his family flew in from South Korea for Christmas, which was especially exciting since we got to meet their new baby girl Penny!! They were here over the summer when my SIL Claire was pregnant but Penny was born this fall when they went back to Korea. She is just darling, but I think the cutest thing ever is they have this little bath ring for her that lets her swim around in the tub - so adorable!! Since they were only here for 10 days, I spent a lot of time up at my parents getting some good baby cuddle time in ;) We also made it out to Brookfield Zoo one day which was freezing but still fun. I love that the Lincoln Park Zoo is right in the city and free, but Brookfield is really a huge step up, I always love the monkey & ape house!
Our Christmas itself is always a little crazy. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house where we did our annual giant white elephant with my mom's extended family, which always means lots of shouting and laughing. As Jeff has discovered over the years, we aren't really the quietest of families ;) On Christmas Day I woke up around 4am (#pregnancyprobs) which meant a little extra time with Penny who was just a tinge jet lagged, until everyone else woke up for banana bread, egg casserole and of course presents! Then we snuck out to drive down to Jeff's parents' house for Christmas round two. His stepdad is from the mid-Atlantic which means their Christmas brunch always includes fried tomatoes on biscuits and oyster stew. After brunch and presents, the rest of the family went out to play a few rounds of paddle tennis while I napped up, and then we spent the rest of the day lounging around.
Besides all of the Christmas festivities, Jeff and I managed to go to the movies twice. We saw Mary Poppins, which I thought was good but not great, and The Favourite, which I thought was weird but hilarious. It's a dark comedy/satire period piece about Queen Anne in England in the 1800s with Emma Stone as the lead, and I would definitely recommend giving it a watch!
For New Year's Eve, a bunch of our friends wound up going for a group dinner at Brownstone and then on a northside dive bar crawl. I made it to one bar before calling it quits, which got Jeff and I home in time to count down to the East Coast New Year and then I went to bed! Then on New Year's Day our friends hosted a daytime pajama party with no hair products allowed ;) After that I headed up to a farewell dinner for my brother's family before ending Christmas break with an early bedtime.
It was a crazy one but still so fun, and I'm so grateful for all of the family time we got to sneak in. Cheers to 2019!
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